01 April 2013

I was awakened a few days ago around 4am by a thump downstairs. This
is about the time that the newspaper is delivered to our front porch, so
I rolled over and went back to sleep.

But a thunk sound below my
bedroom at 1:30am a few days later was a different thing, and I got up
and did a systematic search of my 3-level house. In truth, I was pretty
sure the sound was a book falling off an unbalanced stack downstairs, or
perhaps even a weird dream. How I did that search speaks
more to my “weaponized” (NOT firearms) house and my background: I'm a
Taiho-Jutsu sensei. Of the Japanese martial arts, this one is sometimes
called “Jujitsu on steroids.”

Oh BOY! There may be a 1% chance I can USE this!

But first, back to home invasions.
The expression alone conjures terrible images from lurid newspaper
reports. If you are only robbed and beaten up, you are fortunate. Home
invasion differs from a burglary in its violent intent, and this
distinction appears to be largely American.

Home invasions are
real, if very rare. Statistics on these are notoriously hard to find, in
part because of different crime classifications in different
jurisdictions (in many places these are classified separately as
homicide, rape, kidnaping, etc.). However, the impact on the human
psyche is not unlike the impact of shark attacks. As in most of these
“news” events, the real killers are rarely mentioned:

fishermen wantonly kill millions of sharks every year just for their fins;

handguns in the United States kill 1,130 times more people per year than lightning does, and

31,672 more people are killed by handguns in the United States each year than are killed by sharks.

To put things in perspective:

HANDGUN DEATHS:
In
2011, there were 8,583 murders in the United States committed with
handguns. However, there were 31,672 TOTAL handgun deaths - all the rest
(73%) were suicides, with the occasional handgun accident lumped in.
This is comparable to motor vehicle deaths in the US.

There is a message here: having a handgun ready to blast someone in your home is statistically a far greater threat to you than the statistical chance of any possible safety it may offer. Read on.

SHARK ATTACK DEATHS:
There
were 118 reported shark attacks world-wide in 2011, with 17 fatalities.
There were 47 “unprovoked” shark attacks in the United States in 2012, with just 1 fatality.
You have to wonder about the “unprovoked” caveat: do a lot of people
“mess” with sharks? The vast majority of shark attacks occur in Florida.
One human death to several million shark deaths is a very
unsportsmanlike ratio, IMHO.

LIGHTNING DEATHS:
There
were 28 Lightning fatalities in the United States in 2012, and some
24,000 lightning deaths worldwide. Again, you have to wonder at the
disparity in the statistics, as the US represents 6% of the world
population. There are many possible reasons, including regions like the
Pacific Northwest where lightning is a very rare thing, or perhaps
people live in flimsier houses elsewhere.

Back again to home invasions. Are you at risk of one?
A pattern of dealing in illegal and “recreational” drugs will
dramatically increase your potential likelihood for being targeted.
Living in Anacostia, Maryland, or south Chicago will also dramatically
increase your risk, but this is probably no surprise to anyone in the
US.

What can you do about it?

A HANDGUN IN THE HOME:
The
reality here is dramatically different than what the National Rifle
Association would have you believe. If a woman carries a handgun, there is an 80% statistical likelihood that it will be used against HER:
in other words, she will be either shot with her own weapon, or
pistol-whipped with it. That’s a pretty large statistical number -
basically it is a high probability.

Another take-away: don't carry a pistol in your handbag.

If you’ve ever been to a gun-range, the following observation will be obvious:
It
takes slow, calm focus and concentration to hit a human target at 5
meters (16 feet) distance. Imagine trying to do that in the dark, when
charged with adrenaline, and both the shooter and the target are moving.

There
is a video on YouTube where a traffic stop ends with a perp jumping out
of a stolen car and firing several shots at the police officer. The
dashboard cam shows that the officer then proceeds to fire at least 12
rounds at the perp, who is running in a straight line towards the nearby forest. NOT ONE BULLET ON EITHER SIDE HIT ITS TARGET.

In a home invasion situation, a handgun is an excellent means to poke holes in your house - and probably several neighboring houses at the same time. It will likely NOT protect you.IS THERE A BETTER ALTERNATIVE?YES

Actually,
there are several. There are two excellent and inexpensive tools for
this, in fact, and used together they are pretty effective: The first is a cell-phone that has been charging near your bed. USE IT. Call 911 and the entire conversation will be recorded.

The second tool is a Mag-Light. This has a steel shaft, and a six-C-cell version is the sine qua non,
if hard to find. Held on your shoulder, it can be used to both
momentarily blind an attacker in the dark and strike a devastating blow.
It works like an ASP baton, but it is significantly heavier.

There is also a Taser,
if you can afford one (and the necessary training that goes with it). A
Taser has been shown to be nearly 100% effective in disabling a
targeted human being for up to several minutes after a single zap.
There is at least one case, however, where a very angry man fired
weapons at police and nearby civilians continuously after taking 42
separate bullet "hits" to his body. Only the 43rd bullet, which severed
his upper spine, stopped his murderous rampage. So much for handguns - the N.R.A. loses the facts war yet again.

So...should you then search for the invader and pound him?

NO! Searching for the invader in your home, no matter HOW many stripes you have on your black belt, is statistically stupid - tactically, medically, and legally*.

Instead,
with the cell phone in one hand, you can provide your address to the
911 Operator, and then maintain a running recording of what you see -
perhaps including the only court-defensible and relevant description of
any intruder that you might encounter. Your objective, however, is to GET SAFELY TO YOUR FRONT DOOR, UNLOCK IT FOR THE POLICE, AND THEN GET OUT.

Leave
it to the professionals to deal with the intruder. They can use a Taser
(far more disabling than a handgun), pepper spray (which you would only
inflict yourself with if you tried to use it without some training and
experience), and a handgun if absolutely necessary.

Then stand back and watch. Use your phone to video the "perp walk" for your family, friends, and local TV station.

* Stupid Tactically, Medically, and Legally:

First,
compare yourself against a trained pair of completely awake and alert
police officers. You lose majorly in this comparison.

Second,
a significant number of people, inexperienced in using a handgun in
complex circumstances, end up injuring themselves with their own weapon
(3rd degree burns, lacerated hands, even self-inflicted gunshot
wounds).

Third, unless you have an unlimited bank account, you
should expect that ANY use of a firearm on another human being - for
whatever reason - will require hiring an attorney, and then months of
court appearances (and thinking about them, which will dramatically reduce your quality of life).